SaveSeedSharing.org
SaveSeedSharing.org offers information about the issue and even a petition to sign to help the cause. Find out more details and help to preserve our right to save seeds and share with our neighbors like we have for centuries.
Grow Your Shower Scrubber
Plant luffa and you’ll have a plentiful supply of natural scrubbing sponges for the tub. Luffa is a gourd that vines up a trellis.
Quartered kumquats (say that 10 times fast)
Recipe: Andrew’s Kumquat Marmalade
The kumquat tree was planted for the husband. Yours truly doesn't care for them. To be honest, the husband uses them as an appetite suppressant (the sourness makes one not want to eat anything afterward; it has the same effect as brushing one's teeth). So, now that the kumquats are going gangbusters, the husband decided to make some marmalade for his toast. He's a bit of an experimenter, the husband. Never one to follow a recipe to the letter. So…
Radish seeds are medium sized, so you won't need a very small screen.
Harvesting Radish Seeds
Locally adapted seed is an important ally in the garden. Seeds you save and plant again become more adapted to your climate, water conditions, soil, etc. Each time you save seed and then grow it out properly, that seed improves. Here are tips for harvesting radish seeds. Last winter we ran out of Purple Plum radish seed, so when we spotted one of our large roots bolting to seed at the end of the season, we seized the opportunity. Technically,…
Identify the male squash flower. Step 1 for hand pollinating.
Hand Pollinating Squash
Early-season gardeners in warm-weather climates are planting zucchini, yellow crookneck and winter squashes already. Flowers open, bees and other pollinators arrive, and soon there will be an abundance of squashes for eating and sharing. But with pollinator populations on the decline, we leave nothing to chance here at Gardenerd HQ. We hand pollinate. Perhaps you've heard our Tip of the Week Podcast on hand pollinating before. Now we're providing a visual companion. Here's an easy guide to hand pollinating your…
Harvesting basil is easy if you know where to look.
Harvesting Basil
Every once in a while it's time to return to basics here at Gardenerd. Our blog is filled with helpful hints for gardening, but we recently discovered that the basics for harvesting basil were not among those hints. So here they are. Basil is a fragrant staple of the spring and summer garden. There are dozens of varieties to grow, but they all behave the same (at least all the annual varieties do). Basil is a member of the mint…
Tickle Your Tomatoes
To avoid that long, leggy look in your tomato seedlings, try tickling young tomato plants.
Blackberries
Earth Day Wordless Wednesday: Spring’s Abundance
We're preparing for the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase this week, so enjoy this Wordless Wednesday for Earth Day: photos of spring's abundance in our Test Garden and stop by on Westminster this Saturday if you're in Los Angeles. Happy Earth Day, everyone!
The original carrot plush toy
Where’s Gardenerd?
And now for something completely different... At least a year ago my PR assistant, Mel, gave me a carrot plush toy. It's the cutest thing ever. It also spawned an idea we couldn't pass up. What if we sent this plush toy around the world so people could photograph it in their gardens? What if gardenerds all over the planet could then post their photos to Twitter or Instagram for all of us to share? But we couldn't send him...Gardenerd...out…
Interplanting
Interplanting is a great way to use up open space while protecting the soil from exposure to the baking sun.